ASP.netDating Review | By: BillG

In this article we’ll review ASP.netDating software. The main difference between this solution and the others of such kind is that it is based on ASP.net (Active Server Pages), developed and marketed by Microsoft Corporation. ASP.NET is a part of .NET platform and is intended to create web-applications. The technology is more complicated than PHP and it can be seen as a disadvantage. Well, in this dating software review we’ll not talk about the technology it is created on, but about the solution itself, it’s features, design/layout and support. Anyway, the software is written in C# programming language and you should be familiar with it if you want to make modifications in the software.

First of all let’s start with the license types under which ASP.netDating is being sold. There are several “packages” which I'll list in a table:

Features

Hosted Version

Source code version

Source code + Dedicated server

Hosting Included

+

-

+

Free Support

+

+

+

Free Upgrades

+

+

+

Free Domain

+

-

+

Max Users

2000

Unlimited

Unlimited

Payments Support

+

+

+

Source Code

-

+

+

Price (EUR)

€79 setup fee
€79 monthly fee

€790

€490 setup fee
€290 montly fee

We see that ASP.netDating can be purchased as a hosted solution too, for monthly fee. At the homepage of the company we can see the following statement:

NO MONTHLY, ANNUAL OR HIDDEN FEES

Well, I can agree that there aren't any hidden fees, but why they've written NO MONTHLY, ANNUAL fees when 2 licenses from 3 have monthly fees?

Besides of it I see the following on the main page of the web-site:

100% FREE INSTALLATION

But in the pricelist we see:

79 setup fee for Hosted Version license type

490 setup fee for Source Code +Dedicated Server

Pretty interesting, isn’t it? Maybe ASP.netDating thinks that “Installation” and “Setup” are different statements? Who knows…

I don't like when companies write things which have nothing to do with the reality. Let’s go on with this dating software review.

ASP.netDating's license types one by one.

- Hosted version. Here you'll not have to get a hosting account. Will just need to pay 79 Euros for setup and 79 Euros per month. The source is encrypted, means no modification is possible. Besides of it, the quantity of registered users is limited by 2000. Not too comfortable to start a dating site with such kind of license type. Everybody, who starts a dating site, wants to earn with such a web-site. Don't think that you can earn much with 2000 users.

- Source Code Version. No limitations here, hosting is not included. Besides of it the code is open. Though the fact that the code is open is not sufficient if you're not familiar with #C. The price of the package is 790 Euros and can be installed on one domain only L Pretty expensive.

- Source Code + Dedicated Server. The same as the previous one but with a dedicated server. 490 Euros for the setup (server+script? No info about that.) and 290 Euros monthly fee (does this include the dedicated server maintenance? No info about that).

And the pricelist for additional services of ASP.netDating.

Service

Description

Price

Custom Design

Unique and eye-catching design for your new dating site.

€320

Custom Development

Our developers will create any feature you wish.

€30 per hour

Face Finder Plug-in

The plugin automatically finds faces in the photos and crops them.

€280

Video Converter Plug-in

The plugin automatically converts from most formats to Flash Video (FLV).

€180

Video Streamer Plug-in

The plugin allows users to stream live audio & video to their profile.

€180

AspNetAjaxChat

Chat rooms, Instant Messenger, Video Chat

(AspNetDating Source Code customers get 20% off)

Well… 320 Euros for a unique design, not too much? It is almost half the price of the software with open source code. 30 Euros per hour for custom development. Seems they've hired programmers from Microsoft. Face Finder Plug-in which costs 280 Euros. Is this such a great and necessary feature when it costs so much? I doubt. Video Converter is a very necessary thing. It’s a pity that it’s being sold separately. Even the package for 790 Euros doesn’t include such a basic thing nowadays. The same I can tell about Video Streamer Plug-in. And lastly, another set of very basic things in good sites is being sold separately… AspNetAjaxChat with price from 79 to 999 Euros (depends on simultaneous users the plugin can support). Too expensive…

Now let's see the level of the implementation of ASP.netDating.

1. Layout/Design.

For this ASP.netDating review I'll be using Internet Explorer 6.0. If the site looks and works well in that version of browser, it will work good in all available browsers. The design is CSS based, not too many graphical files which will guarantee the fast loading of the site. All the default templates are created for 800x600 resolution monitors, no liquid layout. Not an advantage taking into the consideration that 80% of all users nowadays set resolution starting from 1024x768.

Now let's see how ASP.netDating's registration process works.

2. Registration.

The software has a country detection by IP feature. It is good:

Don't see any information concerning the obligatory fields. Seems all of them are obligatory.

Didn't know that “Couple” is a gender already.

Is it legit to allow 14 years young children to register on a dating site?

Got this screen after the registration. Where to go? Where to click? No information, no link… Usability is not the best thing in ASP.netDating.

What is the “stealth mode” checkbox for? At least they could set an ALT text there to give a hint.

So, I’m logged into ASP.netDating demo site.

Too many small icons of the same kind. As stated before, usability is not the best thing in this software.

Let’s go on and describe some other parts in this dating software review.

3. Admin panel.

A pretty basic admin panel. Peer shows the registered users. Not so important thing. Can manage all the parts of the site, but can’t edit, for example, the template of your ASP.netDating web-site.

Tried to go and edit some words in the language files. Here what we can see in Edit Languages section:

Clicked on “Edit” for English language:

Seems that with “Edit Languages” ASP.netDating means that you can change the name of the language. Nothing else. At least I could find nothing else to change in Languages section.

4. Support.

Couldn’t find any phone number on the web-site. Even for pre-sale purposes. There is a live chat button on the web-site of ASP.netDating, but it shows the following:

I’ve written them a letter with pre-sale questions through the form on their web-site once I’ve started this ASP.netDating review. 5 hours have passed already and I didn’t get any response as of yet. Seems they don’t work on week-ends (review is written on Saturday). That’s bad if you take a hosted solution, your site has problems on Friday evening and there’s nobody to fix it until the morning of Monday.

This is the end of this dating software review. I think that there is no need to write a conclusion. Everything is clear even without it.
/p

ASP dating software | By: Guy Not Important | Aug 21, 2011
I was interested in thier software so much that I spent the last 4 days evaluating my options for hosting providerse as mine does not support Asp! Anyway, now I am going to make a long story very short; I've since changed my mind on thier software since I have been waiting for ...Read more>>

unfair review| By: marco | Oct 17, 2010
I think it is unfair to complain about live chat unavailable on a weekend. Just because sales is unavailable it does not mean tech support is missing as well! Also, the cost I see on their site is ?290 for the script and no additional fees, costs whatever, so where did you get ...Read more>>

AspnetDating is a piece of crap| By: MotiMeiri | May 7, 2010
The users hate it, it is poorly written, using the worst practices. I suspect that all the "positive reviews" about it were written by the publisher.Read more>>

This is not a real review| By: EricO | Feb 11, 2010
This review is a complete crock. Cherry picking out some negatives -- with a main gripe of no online 'sales support' on weekends?? Um, so how about engaging them in a conversation Monday through Friday and commenting on what occured? Ive spoken to their sales support numerous t...Read more>>

Yes| By: admin | Feb 4, 2009
Hi Johnny, yes, that is ahy we ask everyone to add their own reviews. It will make it all more objective.Read more>>